Minos
“Many have tried and failed to overwhelm my strength. Turn back before you feel my wrath!” – Minos's first introduction. “I warned you!” – Minos's second introduction. “Maybe I was the one who should have exercised caution. , the lapis is yours.” – Minos's last words. King Minos is the boss of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. He is based on the character from Greek mythology. Biography Early Life Minos was born to Zeus and Europa in the Dikteon Cave (also known as the Cave of Zeus), in 1315 B.C., near Lato, on the Lasithi Plateau on the island of Crete, in Greece. Dikteon Cave was also where his father Zeus was born, while in hiding from Cronus. Zeus disguised himself as a bull to attract a nymph named Europa. He led her to the Dikteon Cave, where he revealed his true form, and made love to her. And from that, Minos was conceived and born. He, his brother Rhadamanthus, and his half-brother Sardepon were all raised by Asterion, King of Crete. But when Asterion died in 1306 B.C., he left all of his lands to Minos - 9 years old at the time - and Minos became the new king. After a quarrel with his brothers, he banished them from Crete. Minos would be reunited with Rhadamanthus in the underworld, where they, along with Aeacus, would be the three Judges of Hades. Minos would go back to the Cave of Zeus every 9 years to discuss new laws with Zeus. 6 years into his reign, in 1300 B.C., the 15-year-old Minos established a code of law. Under his rule, Minos established the largest naval fleet in all of the Mediterranean, and his empire colonized most of the Aegean islands and rid the sea of pirates. Minos was the first ancient ruler known to have built a navy, and Crete had become a naval superpower under his rule. He encouraged trade, constructed major public works, instituted an excellent legal code, established an educational system, and helped the arts to flourish. Because of him, Crete flourished in maritime trade as well as overland commerce. In 1281 B.C., Minos married Pasiphaë when they were barely of age: Minos was 28, and Pasiphaë was around 15. The Minotaur Around 1252 B.C., Minos asked Poseidon for a snow-white bull as a sacrifice in exchange for support from the water-god, but upon looking at the bull emerging from the seafoam, Minos changed his mind and sacrificed another from his herd. Poseidon was enraged that Minos refused to sacrifice his pet bull to Poseidon: killing the bull would have honored Poseidon, but since Minos did not, he also did not honor Poseidon. Out of spite, Poseidon had Aphrodite curse Pasiphaë with zoophilia, making her become infatuated with the bull. Aphrodite also made the bull feral and hostile, as it laid waste to the lands. Pasiphaë later consulted the help of Minos’s Athenian craftsman Daedalus. Daedalus created a hollow wooden cow, and applied leather for the skin, in the hopes that this would fool the bull into thinking that it is a real cow; Pasiphaë climbed inside the fake cow. Pasiphaë was impregnated by the bull, and 9 months later, she gave birth to the dreaded Minotaur – later named Asterion, after Minos’s stepfather – much to Minos’s horror. To prevent people from seeing his son, Minos ordered Daedalus to build a stone labyrinth, (in Minos’s palace in Knossos) for Asterion to live in. This labyrinth, according to Daedalus, was “a cage with convoluted flextions that disorders debouchment.” Theseus slays the Minotaur In 1252 B.C., during the construction of the labyrinth, Minos’s son Androgeus was murdered – either by jealous and drunken Athenians for winning all the games in the Panathenaic Olympics, by King Aegeus himself, or when he tried to fight the Marathonian Bull, which had fathered the Minotaur, and did not succeed – and Minos was outraged by his son’s death. Minos ordered Zeus to strike the city with famine and misfortune. When he sailed to Athens, he was ready to declare war on the already-declining city. After a discussion with Athens’ king, King Aegeus, Minos spared the war, but only if Aegeus complied with his terms: once every 9 years, when the full moon would fall on the March equinox (March 21), Aegeus would send 14 Athenians – 7 young men and 7 young virgin maidens – to his palace as sacrifices to Asterion, in retribution for Androgeus's death. 27 years later, in 1234 B.C., the third year arrived. King Aegeus's 25-year-old son Theseus volunteered to be one of the sacrificial victims so that he could slay the Minotaur. Upon arrival, Minos decided to test Theseus to see if he was the son of Aegeus. Removing one of his rings, Minos threw it into the sea. Theseus, who was also a son of Poseidon, prayed to him and then jumped into the water. He retrieved the ring and a crown, and gave them to Minos. Unknown to Minos, his love-stricken daughters Ariadne and Phaedra fell in love with Theseus. That night, unable to bear the thought of Theseus being killed by Asterion the following dawn, Ariadne turned to Daedalus for help. After he told her the secrets of the Labyrinth, he gave Ariadne a clue of never-ending flaxen string to lead Theseus’s way around the labyrinth; Ariadne gave Theseus the string. The next morning, Theseus and the others were cast into the Labyrinth. Theseus used the string and made a trail to lead him to Asterion, where he eventually killed him. Returning triumphant, Theseus sailed away with the captives and Minos’s daughters. Daedalus's escape Furious at Daedalus for aiding Pasiphaë, Ariadne, and now Theseus, Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his 16-year-old son Icarus in the labyrinth. However, Daedalus, having built the labyrinth, managed to escape easily, and Pasiphaë even released them, but Minos soon found out, and – fearing that he might tell everyone the secrets of the labyrinth – imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in the high tower above the royal palace. Minos, who had strict control of the ships, also ordered every vessel surrounding or leaving Crete to be searched thoroughly, which made it impossible to escape. Daedalus knew that they could not escape by land or sea, but Minos’s boundaries did not cover the sky. They glued wax and feathers to their bodies, and sewed them together with twine, making wings. That night, they set a course for Miletus - an ancient Greek city, later to be found in Turkey - and took flight over the sea. As dawn rose, they had flown over most of the islands, including Samos, Delos, Paros, Calymne (now Kalymnos), and Lebynthos (Levitha). Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting his wings. He fell into the sea south of Samos and drowned. Daedalus felt guilty for letting his son perish, and landed at the island nearby: Doliche. After recovering his son’s body from the ocean, he named the area of the Northern Aegean Sea – in which he fell into – the Icarian Sea, and the island Doliche, later renamed Ikaria. He then flew off to the Italian island of Sicily. On landing, he built a temple dedicated to Apollo on the south coast of the island, and hung up his wings as an offering to Apollo, vowing never to fly again. Death Furious that his architect had outsmarted him yet again, Minos plotted to return Daedalus to Crete, so he sailed all over the Mediterranean Sea, where he would challenge people to successfully thread a triton shell. After 5 years of searching for him, Minos’s travels eventually led him to Sicily. After docking in Minoa and settling a few cities, Minos's travelling through the Sicilian countryside led him to Camicus - now in the present-day city of Sant'Angelo Muxaro, in the Platani Valley, and the mountainous region around Agrigento. Minos talked with King Cocalus, the King of Camicus. He put an old man in Cocalus’s court to the test, with a triton shell and an ant. If the man could successfully thread the triton shell without breaking it, then the man was Daedalus. The old man tied a bit of string to the ant, and successfully threaded it through, passing Minos’s test. Realizing the man was in fact Daedalus, he demanded Cocalus hand him over, but Cocalus managed to convince Minos to bathe first. That evening, Minos sat in a tub in Cocalus’s courthouse, while Cocalus’s daughters and Daedalus poured boiling water from Mount Kronio – a mountain known today as San Calogero, near the town of Sciacca – through a carefully-placed vent above the tub, scalding Minos to death and ending his tyranny for good. After his death, because of his righteous and just laws, Minos became the second judge of the three Judges of the Dead in Hades. The 3 of them would sit and serve in the forecourt of Hades's Palace. While his brother Rhadamanthus judged the souls of Asians, and Aeacus judged the souls of Europeans, Minos had the deciding vote. Minos was also the chief judge of Hades. Minos was 86 years old when he died. Return Minos returned as a zombie villager and usurped the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Physical appearance As a zombie villager, Minos has green skin and red eyes. He wears enchanted spring-green dyed leather armor, including: * Helm of Minos (dyed) with Protection IV, Projectile Protection IV, Unbreaking VII, and +6 Max Health (color #00FF77). * Minos’s Chestplate (dyed) with Protection IV, Unbreaking VII, and +6 Max Health (color #00FF66). * Leggings of Minos (dyed) with Protection IV and Unbreaking VIII (color #00FF66). * Boots of Minos (dyed) with Protection IV and Unbreaking VII, and +0.15 speed (color #00FF4C). Minos also carries Minos’s Sword, an enchanted iron sword with Knockback III, Unbreaking II, and +6 attack damage. Trivia * Minos's story partially includes Medea, another villain in Wayward Wonders. ** He is Medea's uncle, as Medea is the niece of Pasiphaë. ** Medea married King Aegeus - who was to blame for Androgeus's death - after her divorce with Jason, but Aegeus exiled Medea after she tried to poison Theseus. ** In the game, Minos usurps the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The believed reason why the Hanging Gardens were built was because King Nebuchadnezzer's wife missed her homeland of Media, a region in Northwestern Iran: Media was established and founded by Medea. Gallery Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:Bosses